1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a numerical controller with a multi-core processor that enables execution of greater amount of moving instruction creation processes within allowed time.
2. Description of the Related Art
For a numerical controller for controlling a machine tool or an industrial machine, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2014-035564, a technology has been proposed that provides a numerical controller with a multi-core processor in which a numerical control processor and a sequence control processor, separated conventionally, are integrated as one of multiple cores of one processor for purpose of cost reduction and that connects the processor and a peripheral control LSI through a high-speed serial bus to reduce the number of pins in the LSI and enable integration of peripheral control LSI.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2009-163527 discloses a system that attains multi-OS by introducing a multi-core into an embedded system for purpose of improvement in processing performance, wherein dynamic load distribution among OSs is carried out while suppressing overheads for distributing calculation resources among the OSs in order to solve a problem of incompatibility between minimization in the overheads for distributing calculation resources among the OSs and the dynamic load distribution among OSs.
Software processes in a numerical controller include a machining program analysis process in which a machining program is analyzed, moving instruction creation process in which a moving instruction to motors is created, a display process in which status of the numerical controller, a machine tool, and the like is displayed on a display, a PMC (programmable machine controller) process in which input and output of signals to and from the machine tool, sequence processes, and the like are carried out.
Among these processes, the moving instruction creation process has to be carried out without fail so as to be completed in each cycle in order that the instructions to the motor may be given uninterruptedly. Throughputs of the moving instruction creation process for processes relating to axes, paths, and the like have been increasing year by year because of demands for multi-axis, multi-path, and high-performance machine tools. Shortening in processing cycle is also demanded in order to attain machining at higher speed and with higher accuracy. That is, execution of greater amount of processes in shorter time period is demanded in the moving instruction creation process. It is necessary to increase processing capacity per unit time in order to address such demands.
As a method for addressing such demands, it is conceived that a processor with high operating frequency or a large number of cores is employed for devices with multi-core processors as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2014-035564 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2009-163527 that have been described above. The high operating frequency, however, makes a problem in that increase in heat generated by the processor may cause malfunction in the numerical controller. The processor with a large number of cores makes a problem in that the processor is expensive and causes overall cost increase.